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Monday, July 10, 2017

Global Unemployment

Earlier this year, the International Labour Organisation released a report that showed the endless trends of increased unemployment. The number of unemployed globally will increase this year to total 201 million, an increase of 3.4 million unemployed people from last year. These are deflated numbers. They are merely an indication of reality. It is impossible to know actually how many people are unemployed or barely employed.

Twenty-five percent of Spain’s working age population is unemployed, he says. Near three-quarters of Spain’s young are unemployed. Four of five Spaniards between the ages of 16 and 29 live with their parents. The numbers define their lives. One of the most striking aspects of unemployment in Spain is that one in four of Europe’s unemployed lives in that country. The unemployment rate for Moroccans rose astronomically from 16.6 percent before the current economic crisis to 50.7 percent today. One in three Moroccans are unemployed in Spain. Moroccan migrants have now been returning home.

The numbers of the working poor are set to increase even more dramatically, by five million people over the next two years. ILO reports that half of the workers in South Asia live in extreme or moderate poverty, while two-thirds of the workers in Sub-Saharan Africa live in extreme or moderate poverty. These are the people with jobs. Having a job is not sufficient as an indicator of being outside poverty.

Capitalism has failed to end poverty, hunger, homelessness, crime, etc. and has actually increased those things. Marx was right on about the capitalist use of a Reserve Army of Labor. The capitalists want unemployment high because they want to keep wages low and to steal the productivity gains for themselves. The rich are waging class warfare on the rest of the world.